Crises, “Daily Nightmares,” and National Awakening

The Current Climate of ‘Daily Nightmares’

Many Americans today feel that the country is lurching from one crisis to the next. In fact, a 2017 American Psychological Association survey found 59% of Americans describing the present time as the “lowest point in our nation’s history” that they can remember​ vox.com. Across generations – even those who lived through World War II, Vietnam, or 9/11 – people report unprecedented stress about the nation’s future​ vox.com . Daily news of political turmoil, social unrest, public health emergencies, and economic uncertainty creates a pervasive sense of national distress. For a significant portion of the public, each day’s headlines feel like “daily nightmares,” fueling anxiety that the American Dream is slipping away.

Yet history and theory alike raise an intriguing question: Can this very discomfort spark a greater national consciousness? In other words, might a pattern of sustained crises – whether by design or by accident – jolt society into a higher level of awareness or even catalyze transformative change? To explore this, we consider cultural, political, and historical analyses of how periods of turmoil have impacted American society’s collective consciousness.

Distress as a Catalyst for National Consciousness

There is a long-running idea that periods of intense adversity can become turning points, awakening the public to problems that have festered unnoticed. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. openly embraced the tactic of creating “constructive” crisis to force awareness. In his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail, King wrote that “nonviolent direct action seeks to create a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.” The goal was to “dramatize the issue so that it can no longer be ignored…to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.” johndear.org

 In King’s view, discomfort was “necessary for growth,” a way to bring hidden injustices to light and spur the “light of human conscience” in the broader public​ johndear.org. This reflects a purposeful use of crisis to elevate moral awareness.

Even outside the realm of activism, observers have noted that only great shocks seem to precipitate real change. Economist Milton Friedman famously stated that “Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.”

economicsociology.org Friedman’s point, echoed by policymakers like Rahm Emanuel decades later, was that moments of national emergency enable reforms that once seemed politically impossible​ realclearpublicaffairs.com . (“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Emanuel said of the 2008 financial meltdown, meaning it was an opportunity to enact big changes​ realclearpublicaffairs.com.) In this view, crisis shakes society out of complacency. It creates a window in which public consciousness and the political landscape become more malleable – ready, for better or worse, to “do things you thought you could not do before”​realclearpublicaffairs.com.

Not everyone sees such turmoil as intentional or positive, of course. Some critics argue that constant chaos can just as easily overwhelm or divide the public as enlighten it. Before turning to those concerns, however, it’s instructive to examine examples that supporters of the “awakening through crisis” idea often cite – both in recent politics and in earlier American history.

Rising Awareness Amid Chaos: Contemporary Views

Political commentators have observed that recent years of turbulence have, in some respects, galvanized the American public. Paradoxically, the very disarray that many find so frightening has also spurred civic engagement at levels not seen in decades. For example, President Donald Trump’s norm-shattering term was viewed by many as a democratic crisis – yet it “triggered a systemic immune response in the body olitic,” producing a surge of activism among his opponents (and even his supporters)​

theatlantic.com .

The Atlantic termed this a “civic surge,” noting that millions of previously disengaged Americans began attending marches, packing town halls, joining civic groups, and subscribing to news outlets in response to the daily controversies​ theatlantic.com. Membership in the ACLU and League of Women Voters swelled, and searches for constitutional terms like “Emoluments Clause” spiked as citizens educated themselves on governmental checks and balances​ theatlantic.com. In effect, a large segment of the public that felt shock or outrage at the administration’s actions channeled that energy into political awareness and participation.

Political sociologist Dana Fisher documented a similar pattern in the wake of the 2016 election. She found that Trump’s victory “ignited progressive activism at a rate never seen before in American politics,” with many protesters getting involved for the first time in their lives​ npr.org . At the Women’s March in 2017, one-third of participants surveyed had never protested until that day​ npr.org . Fisher noted that people were motivated by a wide array of issues – immigration, racial justice, women’s rights, the environment – but shared a sense of alarm. “Everybody’s pissed off…for different reasons. Trump is helping everybody to find common ground,” she said wryly​ npr.org. In other words, the administration’s contentious agenda inadvertently united diverse groups in opposition, sparking a new level of political consciousness and coalition-building among them.

Notably, this engagement has not been one-sided. Periods of upheaval can awaken competing consciousness in different camps. While liberal and moderate Americans mobilized in “resistance” to Trump, many conservatives felt equally energized in support of his disruptive approach​ theatlantic.com. The result was greater involvement across the spectrum – a reinvigoration of political life, albeit a polarized one. Commentator Eric Liu likened it to an immune system response: the “virus” of chaotic governance provoked the “antibodies” of citizen activism on all sides​

theatlantic.com. The key takeaway is that crisis can be a focusing lens. It forces people who might otherwise tune out to choose a side, pay attention, and take action.

Of course, increased engagement is only one dimension of “heightened national consciousness.” Another is whether society learns lessons and enacts changes that address the root problems behind the turmoil. For insight, we can look to history. The United States has endured numerous periods of profound crisis, and in many cases these did precipitate sweeping transformations or leaps in collective awareness. Below, we explore several historical parallels – from the Great Depression to 9/11 – often cited as evidence that out of great national distress can come great societal progress.

Historical Parallels: Crisis and Transformation

 The Great Depression (1929–1939): The economic cataclysm of the 1930s upended American society. With banks failing, unemployment reaching 25%, and breadlines wrapping city blocks (see image above), Americans’ faith in the status quo was shattered. This trauma led to an aggressive national self-examination of capitalism and government’s role. Under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the country underwent a political and economic awakening: suddenly, ideas once dismissed as radical – from Social Security and unemployment insurance to bank regulation – became reality.

The Depression “fostered class consciousness,” as even a centrist president began railing against “economic royalists” on behalf of the common man econlib.org. In short, the pain of the Depression forced Americans to confront deep inequities and inspired transformative reforms in the nation’s economic policies and social contract.

Civil Rights Era (1950s–1960s): Likewise, the civil rights movement shows how moral crises can raise national consciousness. African Americans’ struggle against Jim Crow segregation often involved deliberately exposing the brutality of racist systems to shock the conscience of White America. Televised scenes of peaceful protesters assaulted by police dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham (1963) horrified viewers nationwide, creating what Dr. King called a “creative tension” that could no longer be ignored​ loc.gov

. Indeed, images of Black children and marchers being blown down by fire hoses “shocked the nation and awakened the conscience of the American people.” loc.gov

This rising awareness paved the way for landmark reforms like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Similarly, the 1960s saw broad social upheaval – from the violent crisis of Dr. King’s assassination in 1968 to the fury of urban riots – which ultimately pushed issues of racial injustice and equality into the forefront of American consciousness. By the end of that era, segregation had been outlawed and public attitudes about race were forever changed. The country had been deeply discomforted, but in that discomfort came a new commitment (however unfinished) to civil rights.

September 11, 2001: Some national crises produce an immediate if fleeting shift in consciousness. The September 11 terrorist attacks – a sudden tragedy that killed nearly 3,000 people – jolted Americans into a rare sense of unity and collective purpose. For a brief time, a “badly shaken nation came together, in a spirit of sadness and patriotism,” transcending partisan lines​ pewresearch.org. Ordinary people who had been apathetic to world affairs now followed the news intently; discussions of security, foreign policy, and the balance between liberty and safety moved to the center of public debate.

The crisis also prompted structural transformation: the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the reorganization of intelligence agencies, and the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act all signaled a society intensely aware of its vulnerabilities and willing to remake itself to address them. In hindsight, some changes were controversial, but there is no doubt 9/11 profoundly altered Americans’ worldview. The complacency of the 1990s gave way to a heightened consciousness of global threats and a surge of public service (from military enlistment to community vigils) rooted in shared resolve.

These are just a few examples. History provides many instances where a period of crisis spurred Americans to rethink and reform. The table below compares several major American crises and the transformative outcomes that followed:

Major American Crises and Their Transformative Outcomes

(Sources: U.S. National Archives; Library of Congress; historical legislation records.)

Each of these cases illustrates the pattern of crisis -> heightened consciousness -> transformation. In the Great Depression, economic despair broke ideological barriers to change. In the 1960s, televised injustice mobilized the majority’s conscience to finally address civil rights. In the 1970s, Watergate’s “nightmare” led to a public insistence on government transparency and accountability. And after 9/11, Americans radically adjusted their worldview and policies in response to newfound fears. These examples support the idea that profound distress, however painful, can serve as the impetus for society to evolve in significant ways.

The Other Side: When Crises Divide or Manipulate

It is important to note that crisis does not automatically produce beneficial awareness or unity. National trauma can just as easily be exploited or lead to backlash, a point many sociologists and historians emphasize. Author Naomi Klein, for example, warns that elites often use the public’s disorientation during crises to push through controversial agendas. In her book The Shock Doctrine, Klein argues that “the history of the contemporary free market was written in shocks.” Disasters from Chile’s 1973 coup to Hurricane Katrina were “actively harnessed to prepare the ground for...radical free-market reforms,” she observes​ democracynow.org. In other words, rather than citizens consciously shaping reform, panicked populations have sometimes had changes imposed on them while they are reeling. This “disaster capitalism” thesis is a caution that distress can make the public more malleable – not necessarily more enlightened. A fearful or overwhelmed society may accept authority or narratives it would normally question.

Recent history bears out some of these concerns. The unity after 9/11, for instance, proved short-lived; within a couple of years the country was deeply divided over the Iraq War and debates on civil liberties. Heightened consciousness of the terrorist threat also led to contentious outcomes like the PATRIOT Act’s erosion of privacy and incidents of anti-Muslim prejudice – developments many would argue were steps backward for awareness and tolerance. Likewise, the surge of engagement during the Trump era came hand-in-hand with sharp polarization. While many Americans became more informed and involved, they often gravitated to competing camps armed with entirely different “facts” and values. The net effect was arguably a more fractured consciousness – everyone paying attention, but not to the same truths. Sociologists have noted that constant crisis news can trigger “outrage fatigue” or numbness. When every day feels like an emergency, people may become cynical or tune out as a self-defense, undermining the very civic participation that productive change requires.

Finally, there is the question of intentionality. Is the current parade of crises “designed” to spark an awakening, or simply a byproduct of political dysfunction? Most historians would likely contend that, in the long run, crises are inevitable in any society – and it falls to citizens and leaders to choose how to respond. Some administrations (or movements) might indeed leverage chaos as a strategy to shock the system. But more often, as the saying goes, they “never let a serious crisis go to waste” realclearpublicaffairs.com  when it arises. Whether today’s turmoil leads to a leap in national consciousness will depend on how Americans channel their distress: toward constructive reflection and reform, or toward fear and further division.

Conclusion

American history demonstrates that periods of great national distress – those “daily nightmares” when it feels like the republic is unraveling – have often been precursors to renewal. Crises can jolt the public awake and force issues into the open, spurring leaps of progress that might not happen in calmer times. From the New Deal to civil rights to post-Watergate reforms, the United States has a record of ultimately finding meaning in its most painful moments, emerging with a stronger or more just society. However, awakening is not guaranteed. Turmoil can also be a breeding ground for demagogues, repression, or paralysis. Heightened awareness is only valuable if paired with wisdom and action.

Today’s landscape of political and social crises may indeed be laying the groundwork for a more engaged, conscious citizenry – one that demands better of its institutions and itself. The discomfort is real, and it is prompting millions to pay attention. Whether this results in a positive transformation will hinge on the ideas and values that guide us through the storm. As Milton Friedman noted, what matters is having the right ideas “lying around” when the next crisis hits​ economicsociology.org. If Americans can learn from the past and find common purpose in present struggles, these troubled times could yet produce a great leap forward in our national consciousness. Otherwise, the nightmares will simply continue, with no awakening in sight.

A hyper-realistic painting of a diverse crowd of Americans standing united in a city square during a moment of national reckoning. Emotions are etched deeply into every face—grief, defiance, hope, and solidarity. Storm clouds churn above, pierced by rays of sunlight, symbolizing a fragile but growing awareness. Behind them, ghostly echoes of past struggles—the Great Depression, Civil Rights marches, and post-9/11 unity—emerge faintly in the architecture, reminding viewers that today’s crisis stands on the shoulders of history. A powerful portrait of a nation caught between adversity and transformation.